Science Skepticism Across 24 Countries

Efforts to understand and remedy the rejection of science are impeded by lack of insight into how it varies in degree and in kind around the world. The current work investigates science skepticism in 24 countries ( N = 5,973). Results show that while some countries stand out as generally high or low in skepticism, predictors of science skepticism are relatively similar across countries. One notable effect was consistent across countries though stronger in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) nations: General faith in science was predicted by spirituality, suggesting that it, more than religiosity, may be the ‘enemy’ of science acceptance. Climate change skepticism was mainly associated with political conservatism especially in North America. Other findings were observed across WEIRD and non-WEIRD nations: Vaccine skepticism was associated with spirituality and scientific literacy, genetic modification skepticism with scientific literacy, and evolution skepticism with religious orthodoxy. Levels of science skepticism are heterogeneous across countries, but predictors of science skepticism are heterogeneous across domains.

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Global assessment of establishment success for amphibian and reptile invaders

Wildlife Research ◽

10.1071/wr12051 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 39 (7) ◽

pp. 637 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Rodrigo B. Ferreira ◽

Colin M. Callahan ◽

Sharon A. Poessel ◽

Karen H. Beard

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Global Assessment ◽

Propagule Pressure ◽

High Likelihood ◽

Additional Insight ◽

Climate Matching ◽

Establishment Success ◽

The World ◽

Tens Rule ◽

Insight Into

Context According to the tens rule, 10% of introduced species establish themselves. Aims We tested this component of the tens rule for amphibians and reptiles globally, in Europe and North America, where data are presumably of good quality, and on islands versus continents. We also tested whether there was a taxonomic difference in establishment success between amphibians and reptiles. Methods We examined data comprising 206 successful and 165 failed introduction records for 161 species of amphibians to 55 locations, and 560 successful and 641 failed introduction records for 469 species of reptiles to 116 locations around the world. Key results Globally, establishment success was not different between amphibians (67%) and reptiles (62%). Both means were well above the 10% value predicted by the tens rule. In Europe and North America, establishment success was lower, although still higher than 10%. For reptiles, establishment success was higher on islands than on continents. Our results question the tens rule and do not show taxonomic differences in establishment success. Implications Similar to studies on other taxa (birds and mammals), we found that establishment success was generally above 40%. This suggests that we should focus management on reducing the number of herptile species introduced because both reptiles and amphibians have a high likelihood of establishing. As data collection on invasions continue, testing establishment success in light of other factors, including propagule pressure, climate matching and taxonomic classifications, may provide additional insight into which species are most likely to establish in particular areas.

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The Human Dimensions of Coastal Adaptation Strategies

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13020546 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 546

Author(s):

Chad J. McGuire

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Collective Action ◽

Human Dimensions ◽

Special Issue ◽

Coastal Adaptation ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

Global Citizenry ◽

Insight Into

Not only are humans responsible for the anthropogenic causes of currently observed climate change, but we are also responsible for our responses to climate change. How we choose to respond provides important insights into our ability to collectively act in the face of threats with the unique characteristics of climate change. This communication attempts to provide an overview of some of the difficulties in forging new policy directions along our coastlines in an era of climate change. It is meant as a referential framing for the research presented in this Special Issue. As this communication is being written, the world is gripped by a global pandemic caused by a variant of the coronavirus. There are important corollaries between the underlying characteristics of the coronavirus and the causes and effects of climate change. Seeing how the global citizenry is responding to the current epidemic provides some insight into the difficulties in fostering collective action towards climate change. As with the pandemic, the issue is not really one of understanding the problem, but rather the varying human responses to the problem. We can expect the same difficulties as we continue to confront the ever-growing problem of climate change.

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Alone, Together

10.4018/978-1-7998-7614-4.ch005 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 77-95

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

International Cooperation ◽

International Community ◽

The Past ◽

The World ◽

Cooperative Institutions ◽

Insight Into

This chapter provides insight into the contemporary problems plaguing the international community, including climate change and terrorism, and examines how international cooperation has worked to combat issues in the past. The chapter will highlight the criticality of cooperative institutions and organizations within the international community and how those organizations may stand up to the rising tide of nationalism around the world.

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The World Heritage Naracoorte Caves beyond 500 ka: U-Pb dating and charcoal analysis from speleothems with implications for Pleistocene vertebrate fossil deposits

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-4488 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rieneke Weij ◽

Jon Woodhead ◽

Liz Reed ◽

Kale Sniderman ◽

John Hellstrom ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

World Heritage ◽

Charcoal Analysis ◽

Past Climate ◽

The Past ◽

Spin Resonance ◽

The World ◽

Past Climate Change ◽

First Time ◽

Insight Into

<p>Under the current rapid global warming, studying how environments responded to past climate change becomes increasingly important to better understand what impact climate variability has on regional flora and fauna. Our new multi-proxy study to the World Heritage Naracoorte Caves in southern Australia provides a unique window into the past climate as they are heavily decorated with speleothems but also contain in-fill deposits rich in Pleistocene vertebrate fossils including the extinct Australian megafauna. Until now, these speleothems have been dated using U-Th series and the fossil-bearing sediments with Optical Stimulated Luminescence and Electro Spin Resonance techniques, but only up to ca. 500 ka. We have U-Pb dated speleothems from the Naracoorte Caves for the first time and extended the record beyond 500 ka. We combined precise chronology with analyses of pollen and charcoal within the speleothems which allows us to better understand how southern Australia&#8217;s climate and its vegetation changed during the Quaternary. It also provides a unique insight into the timing and extent of cave opening with important potential for much older vertebrate fossil deposits than previously thought.</p>

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Get the Data and Make Them Usable

Building a Resilient Tomorrow ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190909345.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 98-115

Author(s):

Hill and

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Decision Making ◽

High Impact ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Weather Data ◽

Disaster Relief Operations ◽

The People ◽

The World ◽

Relief Operations ◽

Insight Into

As climate change advances and its impacts become clearer, more and more communities around the world will need deeper insight into the future, both immediate and distant. Decision-makers will require information to make high-impact, hard-to-reverse decisions about water, agriculture, and where and how to build infrastructure in a world experiencing climate change. They must model the projected evolution of droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires so that they can help people get out of harm’s way, and they will need data to make disaster-relief operations more effective. The world’s capacity to collect and analyze climate and weather data has exploded. Yet many of the people who need these data lack both access to them and the means to make them useful for decision-making. This chapter describes this data paradox and offer a few ideas on how to escape it.

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Burning Planet

10.1093/oso/9780198734840.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Andrew C. Scott

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Large Scale ◽

Flowering Plants ◽

Mass Extinctions ◽

Animal Life ◽

Early Hominids ◽

The World ◽

Life On Earth ◽

The Impact ◽

Insight Into

Raging wildfires have devastated vast areas of California and Australia in recent years, and predictions are that we will see more of the same in coming years as a result of climate change. But this is nothing new. Since the dawn of life on land, large-scale fires have played their part in shaping life on Earth. Andrew C. Scott tells the whole story of fire's impact on our planet's atmosphere, climate, vegetation, ecology, and the evolution of plant and animal life. It has caused mass extinctions, and it has propelled the spread of flowering plants. The exciting evidence we can now draw on has been preserved in fossilized charcoal, found in rocks hundreds of millions of years old, from all over the world. These reveal incredibly fine details of prehistoric plants, and tell us about climates from deep in earth's history. They also give us insight into how early hominids and humans tamed fire and used it. Looking at the impact of wildfires in our own time, Scott also looks forward to how we might better manage them in future, as climate change has an increasing effect on our world.

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Are the financial inclusion schemes of India developing the nation sustainably?

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202129606011 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 296 ◽

pp. 06011

Author(s):

Mukul Bhatnagar ◽

Nitin Pathak

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Sustainable Development ◽

Significant Relationship ◽

Fossil Fuel ◽

Financial Inclusion ◽

Review Of Literature ◽

Pooled Data ◽

The World ◽

The Cost ◽

Insight Into

Introduction- India is the world’s largest democracy which has a prominent place in the world. It is proliferating and financial inclusion schemes of government as a piece of evidence for that. However, the development of any nation on the planet should not be at the cost of environmental degradation. There are indeed substantial ties between climate change and sustainable development. Evidence has shown over several decades that global temperatures are on the rise, mainly due to fossil fuel burns. Methodology- For meeting research objectives, a pooled data of variables extracted from the review of literature is constructed. Later by applying PLS-Algorithm on the constructed dataset, conclusions are made. Value- This research will develop insight into whether the financial inclusion scheme of government is sustainably developing the economy or not. Result- There exists a significant relationship between financial inclusion and CO2 emissions, which concludes that financial inclusion schemes of government are not doing sustainable development. Conclusion- There is an urge to link financial inclusion schemes with sustainable development.

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The Human Dimensions of Coastal Adaptation Strategies

10.20944/preprints202012.0481.v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Chad J. McGuire

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Collective Action ◽

Human Dimensions ◽

Special Issue ◽

Coastal Adaptation ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

Global Citizenry ◽

Insight Into

Not only are humans responsible for the anthropogenic causes of currently observed climate change, but we are also responsible for our responses to climate change. How we choose to respond provides important insights into our ability to collectively act in the face of threats with the unique characteristics of climate change. This communication attempts to provide an overview of some the difficulties in forging new policy directions along our coastlines in an era of climate change. It is meant as a referential framing for the research presented in this special issue. As this communication is being written, the world is gripped by a global pandemic caused by a variant of the coronavirus. There are important corollaries between the underlying characteristics of the coronavirus and the causes and effects of climate change. Seeing how the global citizenry is responding to the current epidemic provides some insight into the difficulties in fostering collective action towards climate change. As with the pandemic, the issue is not really one of understanding the problem, but rather the varying human responses to the problem. We can expect the same difficulties as we continue to confront the ever-growing problem of climate change.

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Ultrastructure of neuromuscular relationships in the canine heartworm (dirofilaria immitis)

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100143018 ◽

1986 ◽

Vol 44 ◽

pp. 278-279

Author(s):

W. L. Steffens ◽

Nancy B. Roberts ◽

J. M. Bowen

Keyword(s):

Dirofilaria Immitis ◽

Domestic Dogs ◽

Structural Description ◽

Pharmacological Effects ◽

Free Living ◽

Canine Heartworm ◽

The World ◽

Synaptic Region ◽

Muscle Innervation ◽

Insight Into

The canine heartworm is a common and serious nematode parasite of domestic dogs in many parts of the world. Although nematode neuroanatomy is fairly well documented, the emphasis has been on sensory anatomy and primarily in free-living soil species and ascarids. Lee and Miller reported on the muscular anatomy in the heartworm, but provided little insight into the peripheral nervous system or myoneural relationships. The classical fine-structural description of nematode muscle innervation is Rosenbluth's earlier work in Ascaris. Since the pharmacological effects of some nematacides currently being developed are neuromuscular in nature, a better understanding of heartworm myoneural anatomy, particularly in reference to the synaptic region is warranted.

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The World Economic Forum Principles on "Climate Governance on Corporate Boards": can soft law help to face climate change around the world?

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT STUDIES ◽

10.3280/cgrds1-2019oa8509 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 37-55

Author(s):

Sabrina Bruno

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

South Africa ◽

Comparative Analysis ◽

Boards Of Directors ◽

Soft Law ◽

Corporate Boards ◽

World Economic Forum ◽

Financial Factor ◽

The World ◽

World Economic

Climate change is a financial factor that carries with it risks and opportunities for companies. To support boards of directors of companies belonging to all jurisdictions, the World Economic Forum issued in January 2019 eight Principlescontaining both theoretical and practical provisions on: climate accountability, competence, governance, management, disclosure and dialogue. The paper analyses each Principle to understand scope and managerial consequences for boards and to evaluate whether the legal distinctions, among the various jurisdictions, may undermine the application of the Principles or, by contrast, despite the differences the Principles may be a useful and effective guidance to drive boards' of directors' conduct around the world in handling climate change challenges. Five jurisdictions are taken into consideration for this comparative analysis: Europe (and UK), US, Australia, South Africa and Canada. The conclusion is that the WEF Principles, as soft law, is the best possible instrument to address boards of directors of worldwide companies, harmonise their conduct and effectively help facing such global emergency.

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